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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (9145)	2/10/2000 12:16:00 AM
From: Ron C	Respond to of 60323

Craig: "Why would a company with the prestige of Nikon choose Lexar over SNDK?". Could it be possible that Lexar made them an outstanding deal so as to facilitate cash flow to pay legal fees? IMO: Any company making "deals" with OEM's can only increase the awareness of John Q Public as to the possibilities of Compact Flash....then on to MMC. I, too believe that Nikon would have been better with the outstanding R&D and staff of SanDisk. As the demand increases and the write/rewrite speeds increase and demand for the MMC/format comes into it's own, most OEM's will be clamoring to 140 Caspian Court,Sunnyvale. R. $142+ Sandisk...The Answer To High Tech

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (9145)	2/10/2000 4:18:00 AM
From: Tumbleweed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

IMHO, the Nikon/Lexar deal does not bode well for SNDK. If this deal is just to put a Lexar flash card in Nikon cameras, then I presume the only commitment Nikon have made is to buy a certain volume, and price would have been a very important factor in that. There would be no long term 'design ins' or any other lock in for Lexar would there? So I just see this, unless there are some other facts I dont know, as a simple "who can sell me xxx,000 CF cards at the cheapest price?" issue and not a strategic one. Joe

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (9145)	2/10/2000 7:09:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Craig, ...if SNDK is holding all the patent cards, why would a company with the prestige of Nikon choose Lexar over SNDK? Nikon has the resources to uncover honest facts...to know what we do not. They could have chosen Lexar because SanDisk was unable to fulfill the order or because the order was late. Also, the press release does not say that Lexar is the exclusive supplier. For example, for a while Kodak was also using Lexar products. Finally, it may be a means for Nikon to say "Hey, we found a cheaper supplier for CF" and put SanDisk on notice. I doubt that this is the case because SanDisk is striving to be the lowest cost provider and it would be very short-sighted to employ such tactics given the current shortage of CF and the potential trouble Lexar is facing. Don't forget that Sony also has expressed an interest in working with Lexar. They must be perceived by the OEM community as being a competent and well run operation. I guess only time will tell if the decision was sound. Ausdauer

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (9145)	2/10/2000 9:21:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

As Ausdauer suggests, there might be a problem getting enough CF from SanDisk, and other suppliers might be needed. Furthermore, I believe Nikon supplies either 8mb or 16mb units, which are no doubt of older design than the higher capacity units that anyone in his right mind would want for regular use with these cameras. A third issue is whether in the agreement to supply flash memories to Nikon, Lexar has made a provision to indemnify Nikon in case SNDK prevails in court. Any or all of those reasons could be behind Nikon's use of Lexar media. So to me the patent issue is still unresolved, both in terms of how the court decides, and in substantive terms, based on what we know of the substantive design features of Lexar and SNDK cards. As to royalty payments, I think SNDK should report to its shareholders all the companies from whom it receives royalties. This is simply information of the sort that any company ought to give freely to shareholders. In the past, SNDK has always been forthcoming about whether they're receiving royalties from a particular company. They have answered similar questions at their conference calls. Art